Using your own AIX OS image to create virtual system instances

IBM® OS Pattern Kit allows you to onboard your own operating system image in to Cloud Pak System Software and transform that image by adding capabilities that are required for pattern-based deployment.

1. Follow the steps in Adding virtual appliances to import your own base operating system image as a virtual appliance (OVA) in to Cloud Pak System Software.
2. Follow the steps in Deploying virtual appliances to deploy the virtual appliance and create a running virtual machine.
3. Follow the steps in Starting and stopping virtual machines to start the virtual machine.
4. Log in to the virtual machine.
   You must execute the install script on the virtual machine.
5. Download and install enablement packages for preferred supported systems.
   • Installing AIX enablement package
6. Delete the /opt/ibm/ae/AP/noap file from the virtual machine.
7. Delete entries in /etc/hosts file except for localhost and localhost6 from the virtual machine.
   For example: /etc/hosts should have only the following entries:

   • 127.0.0.1 localhost loopback
   • ::1 localhost6.localdomain localhost6 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
8. Shutdown the virtual machine by running the shutdown command.

   Unmounting the file systems...
   /usr/sbin/shutdown: There is an input or output error.
   /usr/sbin/shutdown: There is an input or output error.
   client_loop: send disconnect: Broken pipe

   Note: You can ignore the input or output errors and Broken pipe messages during the shutdown process as it does not affect the VM's ability to shutdown.
9. Use one of the following procedures to create a new image of an existing virtual machine.
   Note: A virtual machine may be left in an unmanageable state if you perform this step against a virtual machine that is from a virtual system pattern deployment instead of a virtual appliance deployment. From the console, the virtual system instance will appear in the launching state but you will not be able to launch the instance. You should delete this virtual system instance.
   • Follow the steps in Creating virtual images from existing virtual machines.
   • Use the following CLI commands to create a new image of the virtual machine by specifying the new image name, version, virtual machine id (vmid), and the url to metadata OVA (using the corresponding metadata OVA).

     1. >>> vm=admin.virtualmachines.list({'name':'name_of_virtual_machine'})[0]

        where name_of_virtual_machine is the name of the virtual machine as deployed from the virtual appliance under consideration (or a partial name that can uniquely identify the virtual machine).

     2. >>> deployer.virtualimages.create({'url':'url_of_metadata_file','vmid':vm.id,'name':'name_of_virtual_image','version':'version_of_virtual_image','description':'description_of_virtual_image'})

        where
        • URL of the url_of_metadata_file is the URL of the metadata OVA file which your Cloud Pak System Software can access. You can provide the metadata OVA file in one of the following ways:
          • Download the metadata OVA file from the IBM DeveloperWorks website at: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/downloads/ibm/ospatternkit/index.html.
          • Define an accessible ssh location using the following format:

             <IP address>:<full path and name of file>

            For example,

            172.15.16.244:/tmp/ova/MAESTRO_LINUX_OS_IMG_METADATA_2.1-11.ova

            Be sure to provide the correct user and password to connect to the ssh location.
        • name_of_virtual_image is the name given to the virtual image to be created.
        • version_of_virtual_image is the version of the provided virtual image.
        • description_of_virtual_image is the description of the provided virtual image.
     For example:

     >>> vm=admin.virtualmachines.list({'name':''My AIX VM''})[0
     >>> deployer.virtualimages.create({'url':'http://172.16.15.250/jobs/MAESTRO_AIX_OS_IMG_METADATA_OVA/lastSuccessful/archive/MAESTRO_AIX_OS_IMG_METADATA_2.1-12.ova','vmid':vm.id,'name':'BYOS AIX 7.2','version':'1.0.0.0','description':'My AIX Image for pattern deploy'})]

     For example (when using ssh):

     >>> vm=admin.virtualmachines.list({'name':''My AIX VM''})[0
     >>> deployer.virtualimages.create({'url':'172.16.15.250/jobs/MAESTRO_AIX_OS_IMG_METADATA_OVA/lastSuccessful/archive/MAESTRO_AIX_OS_IMG_METADATA_2.1-12.ova','vmid':vm.id,'name':'BYOS AIX 7.2','version':'1.0.0.0','description':'My AIX Image for pattern deploy'})]

10. Inspect the virtual image by following the steps in Viewing and modifying virtual images. Accept the license agreement if it has not yet been accepted.
11. Once the new image is successfully created, verify the new image by creating a virtual system pattern using the image component from this new image. Follow steps in Creating virtual system patterns.

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